Colorado Bill to Allow Local Government to Use Approval Voting

Two Colorado legislators, Senator David Balmer (R-Centennial) and Representative Jonathan Singer (D-Longmont) have introduced SB 65. It allows cities and counties to use Approval Voting, if the election is non-partisan. Here is the text of the bill. Approval Voting allows a voter to vote for as many candidates as he or she wishes, even though only one is to be elected. The candidate with the most votes wins. Thanks to Frank Atwood for this news.

It turns out there’s a simple proportional version of Approval Voting. You just divide each ballot by 1 + w, where “w” is the number of winners approved on that ballot. So if a candidate approved on your ballot wins, your votes now count as 1/2 a vote. If yet another candidate wins, whom you’ve approved, then your votes count as 1/3 a vote, and so on. You’ve already had your say, so your voice is quieter in subsequent rounds, giving a chance for other voices to be heard.

This is the same basic idea as with Single Transferable Vote, but radically simpler. It even uses the exact same ballot voters are used to. The system was invented around 1890 by a Danish statistician.